PESHAWAR, May 23: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday admitted to full hearing a bail application of former NWFP chief minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

The bench, comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi, issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for the next date to be fixed later.

Advocate Zaffar Abbas Zaidi, appearing before the court for the applicant, contended that there was only one case, pertaining to Ring Road land acquisition, pending against his client. He said his client was only a co-accused in the case and was not directly related to the commission of that offence.

Before the former CM was arrested in January this year on his return from the United Kingdom, he had been facing a sentence of three years in absentia and four cases had been pending against him — Ring Road land acquisition, illegal appointments in education department, Hayatabad plots and illegal exit from the country.

The high court had earlier accepted his appeal against the sentence of three years while in the cases of illegal appointment and Hayatabad plots, he was acquitted by accountability courts. Sherpao was allowed bail in the case of illegal exit from the country by the court of a judicial magistrate.

The only case pending against him is of Ring Road land acquisition. Earlier, he had filed application under section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code for his acquittal before the conclusion of the trial, but the accountability court had dismissed that application following which he filed the instant bail application before the high court.

APPLICATION ADMITTED: A two-member bench of the high court admitted to  full  hearing a bail application of a former chief officer of district council, Haripur, Syed Anwar Badshah, and issued a notice to the NAB.